November 11

In April 2007 I did a tour of Holland and Belgium. One day we did a day trip from Brussels to Flanders and had a tour of the World War I battlefields. We began in Ypres, a town that was levelled in this war.

This is a WWI museum, with displays of photos and memorabelia of the battlefields and the people who fought here. As we went into the museum we were given the name of a soldier, a medical person or a citizen of the area. As we went through the museum we got a story of that person and at the end of the tour we found out if the person lived or died.

This is the main square of Ypres, rebuilt as it was before the war.

Then we drove out across the fields of Flanders to the place where our own Dr. John McCrae tended to the wounded and wrote his poem.

These are the terrible bunkers where he worked - dark, cold and damp.

Then we drove on to a cemetary of Canadians, British, Australian and other Commonwealth soldiers of WWI.

There had been many Canadian visitors recently - wreaths, poppies and flags were on the graves of the Canadians.

After dinner that evening, we went to the Menin Gate of Ypres.

Every single night since the end of World War I, except for the years of Nazi occupation in the second World War, the Last Post has been played at this gate.


It was very sad and impressive and touching.